Themes list inconsistency

This is bugging me a little. The Main Page lists the themes, and that's all well and good, but it has the "Wheatley" theme, and all the actual theme pages have "Destroyed" instead. The "Wheatley" one is more in depth. So either we move the "Wheatley" information into the "Destroyed" one, and link "Destroyed" on the Main Page, or change the link in the "Portal 2 themes menu" template from "Destroyed" to "Wheatley".

I attempted the second one, but I'm not sure where that can be edited. --srs bsnss 7:30, 10 November 2012 (EST)

my gelpump tutorial

Correct tutorials

I've noticed that many of the tutorials detail creating various things from scratch, while they already exist as instances. I don't know much about instances, but wouldn't it be better to have the tutorial tell how to do it the easiest way? —Unsigned comment added by Grim Tuesday (talk • contribs). Please use four tildes (~~~~) to sign your username.

Yes, Valve obviously intends them to be used. Instances are simply more powerful prefabs, people should get used to working with them; it's easy to understand and speeds workflow. A case study of individual instances is not a bad idea, but there's no reason to have that in a general tutorial.--Nick D. 15:46, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

An instance is like a mini-level inside another level, so it can work for very complex things that don't change at all, but they're not really useful for the little things. Also, please sign your discussion posts. --JZ Bradley 10:15, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

I disagree, instances are helpful even for the small and simple things. The lone fact that you need to edit only one file to update all instances in all maps using it makes them very powerful. From a programmer's view, instances can be compared with libraries: you simply use them and don't need to know what exactly they do and how they work, as long they work as expected. Prefabs, on the other side, are just code snippets, copy-pasted into the main() function... so yeah, we really need more tutorials on how to use existing instances, explain their parameters and proxy inputs/outputs instead of how to create them from scratch. --Barracuda 10:45, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

I think we have different ideas of what small is, heh heh. It would be good to have tutorials on the Valve instances, but most of the tutorials are either for things that don't have instances or were written pre-SDK. I guess I could start on that today. --JZ Bradley 14:08, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

'Detailing metal walls' link

I don't think this tutorial for Portal should be included in Portal 2's mapping guide. Portal's two most recognizable textures were the metal walls (as seen in the link) and concrete tiles. Along with more sets of textures used in test chambers, Portal 2 introduces a whole new way of thinking about how test chambers are set up and it doesn't exactly follow to the standards set in that tutorial.—Mattshu 09:39, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

Alphabetization

Tutorials

Several of the articles in the "elements" section are tutorials, but are not named or sorted as such. I think we should have a "Level Creation Tutorials" section and articles such as "Panels Rotate" should be renamed to "Creating rotating panels". Thelonesoldier 22:23, 8 May 2011 (UTC)

Each element page should have a tutorial on it, I don't see the need to split up the descriptions and the tutorials. Just add each one to Category:Portal 2 Tutorials. --Nick D. 20:24, 11 May 2011 (UTC)

The names of the Themes are really dumb

I have no idea who named the theme pages, but they are horrible. Destroyed should be Overgrown. Behind the Scenes should be Manufacturing, etc. Really guys, come on.--MrFourVideoCards 07:57, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

I didn't change it, but these names seem to be closer to what Valve uses. At least they're frequently appearing in several folders and files:

destroyed/destructed/destruction/dirty - Ruins in the first two chapters

I changed them back and added some additional text. I think referring to them by what their material sets is called is a smart idea. "BTS" has been around since Portal 1, so I don't see how could be any confusion there. --Msleeper 22:25, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

To avoid conflict and keep consistency, I think the official names referenced by the file paths should be used. They may not be very descriptive or accurate, but I can add a table which indicates the chapters/sections of the campaign that use them. Also, the pages don't reflect this, but there are definitely sub-themes under each of those four; I saw a post on Reddit that listed 7 or so. --Nick D. 13:10, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

Disclaimer at Top

Is it really necessary to have that disclaimer at the top? The page would be cleaner without it, and I think the name and categories already convey that information quite clearly. --Nick D. 22:52, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

Every page about Level creation for other games have this. --Mehiller 22:58, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

If every other level creation page walked off a cliff would you do it too? </kidding> --JZ Bradley 10:19, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I will make all what possible and this page will walked off a cliff too. But at the moment all pages have this. So we must do not ruin design. --Mehiller 11:33, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Buttons and Switches

So I've created a new page--Buttons and Switches (Portal 2)--to replace the previous Buttons page. I did so because I thought the title more accurately reflected the page's content. In addition, I added some info about the cube-specific and sphere-specific buttons. I've linked to the older page on the new one because I'm not sure what to do with the old one; I don't want to outright delete it. I'm perfectly open to the change being reverted, I just thought I'd try to help out. If everyone's alright with it I'll keep adding some info in the near future.--WinstonSmith 04:49, 22 May 2011 (UTC)

You should instead have moved the old page since there's lots of duplicate information now which is bad. Now you should at least check that Buttons and Switches (Portal 2) contains all info from Buttons (Portal 2) for sure and then mark the old one for deletion; although I can't exactly see why you thought this was a good idea in the first place; the 'switches' look more like 'buttons' to me in that sense anyway. Also the layout of the old page is a bit more appealing to me even though it has some spacing issues. --Biohazard 00:07, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

Point taken; come to think of it I believe the only reason I did this may have been for title clarification. Changes have been undone; the category now links to the original Buttons page (with cube-specific and sphere-specific button info added)--though I've kept the link text "Buttons and Switches" for clarity--and the Buttons and Switches page is now cleared and redirects to the original Buttons page. Thanks for the feedback.--WinstonSmith 00:39, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks; it's better that way imho. Also redirection is certainly more favorable indeed. --Biohazard 00:52, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

The title should just be "Button (Portal 2)". While they are arguably also switches, page titles should stick to the official terminology in the game and tools, and afaik "switch" is not mentioned. It's ok to have a subsection or subpage on how to create a button that acts like a switch, but it doesn't belong in the main title. --Nick D. 18:20, 6 July 2011 (PDT)

I'd like a more user-friendly way of loading custom maps, especially for co-op maps. Hopefully this will be implemented with the first DLC. --StephenB 20:35, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

Aesthetics tutorial - where to put it?

Hi people! I recently wrote a somewhat comprehensive article on the aesthetic themes present with Portal 2, found on Thinking with Portals here, and it has been suggested to me by multiple persons that I include it on the VDC. However, I was wondering whether I could have you input on where to put this? Should I include it as a link, or an actual page? Thanks in advance. --Rubrica 04:47, 6 August 2011 (PDT)

Portal 2 level DESIGN

I'd like to point out, to all Portal 2 level designers, that there are a few things you better pay attention to when designing a puzzle. For example, I know that the trigger_catapult is a great tool, even when "cheating physics" to get a smoother playing experience. However, most people really use it to cheat physics to make impossible test chambers, which could be possible with a bit more thinking. Take Infinifling[1] (highly recommended), if you've learnt some basics physics rules, you'll notice some impossible flings only achieved by the trigger_catapult. I first thought it was impossible so I tried to find a different solution, only to discover that the impossible has been made possible. I urge you all to check your physics before releasing a map, and to think if you're using the trigger_catapult to only aid the player get on a ledge safely or to "cheat physics".

Portals are impossible anyway. Why are you telling people off for using them in impossible ways? --Anotheruser67 01:42, 26 March 2012 (PDT)

Auto portals

I don't know what's going on, but whenever I make a prop_portal in my Portal 2 maps, another portal with the same colour shows up at the world origin, and THAT'S what's linked to my portalgun. Can anyone help? --Anotheruser67 23:53, 3 March 2012 (PST)

I figured out a temporary solution, which has the downside of making the sound "Portal Secondary Fire" which isn't normally there. Also, if you make this happen on a trigger, the player may see a flash of the portalgun for a hundredth of a second. Basically, you make a weapon_portalgun positioned right in front of, and facing, where you want the portal to be with Can Fire Portal 2? set to YES but Can Fire Portal 1? set to NO. (Call it portalgun_fix or something.) Make a func_brush underneath it with texture tools/toolsinvisible. (Call it portalgun_fix_ledge.) Make an info_placement_helper EXACTLY where you want the middle of the portal to be and set Force Placement? to YES. Make a logic_auto (or a trigger, but if you have a trigger you'll want to use a point_template to spawn the portalgun when you want the portal to open) and set outputs: OnMapSpawn portalgun_fix FirePortal2 Delay:0.00, OnMapSpawn portalgun_fix Kill Delay:0.01, OnMapSpawn portalgun_fix_ledge Kill Delay:0.01. Then FINALLY it should work. --Anotheruser67 00:10, 4 March 2012 (PST)

Actually the reason this happens is because of a change in the way prop_portals are sent inputs. The upside is that you only need one set of prop_portals per map, but the downside is that to spawn they need to be sent NewLocation inputs. If not they simply spawn at the map's origin. For more info check out https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Prop_portal#Inputs --WinstonSmith 17:05, 12 March 2012 (PDT)

Thank you SO much, I could not figure this out. :) --Anotheruser67 01:46, 16 March 2012 (PDT)